A picture titled “L’Azoth des philosophes” or “The Material of the Work” by Basile Valentin of Paris drawn in 1659 gave him the first clue about which acid to use before the final step in stage one. The drawing depicts a man carrying the universe with this explanatory inscription, “Vistita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” which translated as “Visit the inner parts of the earth; by rectification thou shalt find the occult stone”. The first letters of the Latin incription form the word “vitrol”. Vitrol was, of course, sulfuric acid. He had found the entire drawing inpirational. On the lower left side, a triple face on the ground signified prudence or caution. On the lower right, a naked babe reading the alphabet indicated the work would be of infantine simplicity.
“Well…,” he thought to himself while looking at the finished product in the crystal vial, “it wasn’t exactly infantine simplicity, but it wasn’t all that difficult. Merely expensive and time consuming. I think it’s time to go and tell Diane about my success. After this, I’m never doing any research again. I’ve contributed enough to better people’s lives in the world, it’s time I relaxed and let the world take care of me. I’ll be a man of leisure for the rest of my life. And with this Elixir,” he chuckled to himself, “I’m going to have a very long life indeed.”
Philip slipped into the bedroom quietly with his treasure. He stood listening to Diane’s soft snores. “You’re only twenty-four,” he thought, “when you start showing your age I’ll prepare another dose and give it to you. All the work was for you anyway. I’m thirty years older than you are my darling, how long would it have been until I became too old for you to love. You deserve better than to take care of a decrepit old man in your middle age. Twenty, perhaps thirty years at most and I will either be dead or a bedridden, senile old man. The Elixir will restore my youth and we’ll celebrate life together.”
He disrobed silently, dropping his clothes on the floor. He would take the Elixir, the lay down in bed beside her and wait for the potion to take full effect. He planned to wake her when he was rejuvenated and then they would make love all night. He removed the stopper from the vial and drained the precious liquid in a single draught, dropping the empty vial to the carpet. Instantly he felt a tingling fire in his stomach; it grew rapidly, spreading to the tips of his fingers and toes. A jolt of energy sluiced through his spine from the sacral vertebrae to the top of his head.
He felt like he was floating above himself. Everything in the room seemed to have acquired additional dimensions. He turned around mentally and saw himself standing there, surrounded by an enormous scintillating golden aura. Vast avenues of knowledge opened themselves to him as he became attuned to the Universal Source. Concepts and realities beyond imagining revealed themselves to him and he stood gaping in wonder at the beauty of Everything.
While he stood, the Elixir continued to work, rejuvenating him, youthening his organs and his limbs, temporarily reversing the arrow of entropy and rewinding the biological clock. The aches and pains of age fell away like a discarded cocoon. He was metamorphysising into a new, younger self with every minute, Five years, then ten years, twenty years raced by. His time damaged tissues repaired themselves down to the cellular, then the DNA level. He felt turgid with vitality, he radiated health. Another ten years vanished, and he waited for the process to stop. He wondered for an instant why the process had not slowed and stopped.
Comprehension came to him, and with alarm he knew what had happened. All the machines! All the computer-controlled devices he had used to speed the process up and save time and trouble, they were the root of the problem. The formula had called for months of grinding the mix by hand, heating, cooling and reheating the mix, over and over, watching every step of the process. The observation, the physical labor itself was part of the formula! Psychological and philosophical changes were necessary before the Elixir could be used safely. He had taken a shortcut and automated the process without acquiring the mental discipline necessary to control the effects of the Elixir.